i going to get away withjohn to john curtice, am i going to get away with john to night john curtice withjohn to night or do i have to go through the hoops. you definitely don't, john will do fine. there is a consensus it has got to be served. maybe i should just say sir. but look, that is a polite smile, i have got to say. what are we comparing tonight with john? the seat were for the most part last contested as long azerbaijan four yea rs contested as long azerbaijan four years ago, an awful lot has happened politically, we have had two general elections as well as the eu referendum. more importantly perhaps what we should remember is we talk about what opposition should gain in midterm, we are comparing this result with what was already a midterm in 2014 with the labour party in opposition and indeed in 2014, when these seatses were last contested labour were ahead in the polls and they were already narrowly ahead in our estimate of the party's performance across the piece, so we shouldn't therefore necessarily assume given the opinion polls are saying the two parties are neck and

john curtice, can we just draw some conclusions? conclusions? are we back in three party politics?y councils last year. commentary is going to be in the labour party. labour party. to where we were this time last year. year. year, jeremy corbyn's labour party was written off. was written off. weeks later it managed to run the conservative party closer. conservative party closer. them credit, they have managed to draw level with the conservatives. draw level with the conservatives. elections are home ties for the opposition. opposition. promising you are going to put six in the back of the opposition's net. in the back of the opposition's net. an overall majority in parliament tree election. tree election. emily to come back and talk about in a second. what do you think? right, let me say this. let me say this. cross, from local council elections to general elections. to general elections. council elections than we did a year ago. ago. example we are doing the best we have done since 1971. have done since 1971. there are marginal seat up and down the country where we are deepening.

of 4%john curtice think we'll start with the party would need to win wandsworth. and a third declaration says john, actually a small swing to the conservative. it is a complex pattern. what i will like to do at this point is to bring in the chair ofa this point is to bring in the chair of ajohn this point is to bring in the chair of a john landsman, john, a this point is to bring in the chair of ajohn landsman, john, a member labour. you have been waiting. thank you very much. good morning to you. good morning. it appeared to suggest that this point in the night that... you not going to be too happy with where you are. tell me where you are. i don't think that is true. in the general election last year, there were places where we didn't make progress. and places where we fell back. but it didn't stop us overall. having a tremendous turnaround, the biggest underground ina turnaround, the biggest underground in a general election campaign in british history. it is still early in the night. we have seen results. more from areas where we expect to do poorly and what w